Balmer & Weber

cover 1851

The premises before moving to 1004 Olive St.

The premises at 1004 Olive St., 1907, refurbished, in 20008

History

Balmer & Weber published music in St. Louis from 1850 to 1907. It was founded by two first generation Americans of German origin.

When Carl Heinrich Weber's marriage to a Jewish woman was frowned upon by the royal court at Koblenz, he thought it fitting to leave Germany. He came to America in 1834 and settled in St. Charles with his wife and family of five. At about the same time, [Gottfried] Charles Balmer left his home in Mühlhausen and moved to Philadelphia, finally arriving at St. Louis in 1836.

In 1840, Balmer married Therese Weber, their home subsequently becoming the center of the city's musical life and hosting the likes of Henri Vieuxtemps, Ole Bull and Louis Moreau Gottschalk. In 1848, in partnership with his brother-in-law, Balmer opened a music store at 141 Market Street.

Balmer & Weber found success from the start. They catered to the piano teacher and published innumerable pedagogical pieces. The firm reprinted many of the easy operatic transcriptions of Czerny, Brunner, Beyer, Dorn, Spindler, and Burgmüller and "brilliant" operatic fantasies of Sydney Smith, Franz Liszt, Eugène Ketterer, and Ignace Xavier Joseph Leybach.

Eventually, lack of efficient leadership brought about a let-down in publishing activity. The rise of Shattinger, Thiebes-Stierlin, and Val Reis resulted in a decline in music sales. In 1907 Balmer & Weber sold their catalogue to Leo Feist of New York.

Imprints, Agencies, Addresses

• Balmer & Weber (1848-?)
• Balmer & Weber Co. (1887-?)

Addresses

• 141 Market Street (1848?-ca.1851)
• 58 North 4th Street (1849-1857)
• 56 North 4th Street (1857-ca.1867)
• 209 North 5th Street (1867-ca.1869)
• 206 North 5th Street (1869-?)
• 311 North 5th Street (ca.1878-1884)
• Broadway (1884-1888)
• 209 North 4th Street (1888-1894)
• 908 Olive Street (1894-1902)
• 1109 Olive Street (?-1907)
• 1004 Olive Street (1907)

Plate Numbers

This page is under construction.

Balmer & Weber plate numbers were issued without a prefix, initially in an irregular and contradictory manner. The historian Ernst Christopher Krohn — who was working on an unfinished catalogue of the firm's plate numbers at the time of his retirement — asserts that in 1853, plate numbering became "reasonably regular and actually chronological."

The use of the same plate number for multiple compositions may have been due to carelessness. Dates in italics are estimated.

Sources Consulted

1. Ernst Christopher Krohn and J. Bunker Clark, Music Publishing in St. Louis (Harmonie Park Press, 1988).

Authority Control

• VIAF (corporate)

Links

• Category:Scores published by Balmer & Weber